Look, I've decided to write to that Bruce Perens guy, cited by imbaczek, to get the final answer to this, since it seems to be elusive and obnoxiously circular in terms of arguments. If he answers, I'm willing to accept whatever he says as the final answer.
Bruce:
Hi, my name is Greg Wolfe, and you've never heard of me, and I have no money, but please don't blow me off, you seem like one of the very few people out there that might actually be able to help me.
You mentioned the lack of games in the Open Source space in a recent article, and this bears very specifically upon the issues of doing so, and why it's not been happening, in my opinion.
I am a wanna-be game developer. I've been in the "modding" scene for a decade, in my spare time, but obviously I can't sell those games, so it's never really gone anywhere. As I don't have a college degree or contacts in the closed-fishbowl Industry of game development, I've been stuck- I'm extremely passionate about what I do, but I've never earned a dime.
Three years ago, I came upon the Spring project- a game engine that at first was merely an emulator for Cavedog's classic 1997 hit, Total Annihilation. I'd done a little modding of TA years ago, and when I heard that the engine was GPL, I saw this as, perhaps, a unique opportunity to finally have access to a game engine that didn't require me to be an expert software engineer, but to make great game designs and solid content. I signed on, have helped in countless areas, and three years later... I have the first game that might be commercially viable built. It's called P.U.R.E., and we're going to be in two big European game mags this month, we're making waves on ModDB.com, etc., etc.
However, the fact that I'd like to sell the game... means that the Spring game engine is about to enter what will be either a real renaissance, or the death of the project... and it comes down to money.
I know that you guys in the Free Software world like to talk to the world about the great benefits of software freedom, etc., but in this case... we're talking about a game, where huge amounts of time and expertise must be applied to content.
For two years, we've been having massive flame wars about the GPL License on the engine, and whether it makes the entire game GPL or merely the source code.
These flamewars have been psychologically exhausting and brutal, and as one of the people who's been hoping to make and sell a game to people with the engine, I've been pretty desperate to remain legal, so that I can sell my product, so I've been batted around like the proverbial Ping-Pong ball, trying my best to remain legal.
However, depending on who's talking, I either:
1. Need to GPL my entire game, which effectively means no commercialization is possible.
2. Need to GPL my gamecode, but I can sell my content, so long as I am willing to distribute said gamecode.
3. Need to keep all GPL notices intact on the game engine itself, but the game and the gamecode (which is all scripting-language stuff, operating through API layers) and the content may be kept private.
What I need to know is... is it legal to sell my game, period? Because if case #1 is what's true, that's where things stand. You can't sell a game that people will just "fork" and then charge nothing for. It's preposterous- a game is not an OS or a mega-database app., or something like that, where you're basically paying for support down the road. There's no business model that would be workable.
I know you're a very busy and important guy, Bruce. But Spring is, well, damn-near unique. There are a lot of "GPL" game projects of various kinds, but they aren't really of the depth and power of Spring. You cited Battle of Westnoth... trust me, go play P.U.R.E. and you'll see how far ahead this engine is of just about everything else out there. It's not a "mere emulator", it's a very powerful game engine that's still barely been explored.
Yet, these license issues have been a major problem, and the actions of people, however well-meaning, have been very destructive- people like me have scurried back and forth on various positions, as the legal picture became more clear and we started to understand the GPL, but the fighting is a constant drain on our community, and we really, really need some bona-fide expert advice.
We've written to the FSF, and were given very vague, frustrating answers that seemed to indicate that, so long as a distribution of the Spring engine and all of the source code of a game was all kept under the GPL, that our content would not be considered GPL- and as you probably understand, the content is the game, in a very real sense, for a major game that doesn't look like Pong.
So, if you don't feel it would be a waste of time... just answer this question:
Is it legal to distribute a GPL program with proprietary, non-code content, and charge for that content (assuming that I'm perfectly willing to distribute the engine and the game's source code for free)?
In short... this whole situation goes to the core of why the GPL, and the Open Source movement in general, have been generally unable to get a lot of serious game development done, in my opinion. I've seen similar levels of controversy elsewhere, and if you read through Battle of Westnoth's own website, they've bluntly declared that their content isn't GPL, just their engine and code. So, they've basically said what I'm saying I would prefer to do- give back on the code end, but retain my rights to the content, and sell the right to use that content within that specific game engine.
Only guys like me are even willing to stick their necks out and take a risk like this. Every commercial guy I've talked to about this situation thinks I'm crazy, basically. I'd like you to tell me, frankly, if I am, or if this is the future- whether guys like me might make money on this kind of thing, or whether GPL game engines are basically just trash for hobbyist guys.
Because if I did, and had enough to do it, I'd start another GPL game engine project, with a foundation grant to attract coders and get it going... then hopefully use the resulting engine to make another profitable game, etc.. In short, what happens here could be revolutionary... but it's simply not happening if I can't make money. You can't build AAA games on spare-time, no-pay budgets- this game has taken me about $30K and huge amounts of my time, basically working every single day to develop. If I lose, that's probably the last time anybody bothers. I love the concept of Open Source... I just need to reconcile it with a business model that allows me to make the stuff I'm passionate about, and make money doing so.
I'm perfectly willing to accept your judgement on this issue, for good or ill, but I need a real, expert opinion. Please, just answer that one question for me, it might be a really, really big deal, in terms of how games get developed- if we can make money with engine projects as incubators, then there's probably a hugely viral future for Spring. If not... it's probably a dead letter the minute I tell people what you think, frankly, and it could effect games like Battle of Westnoth as well, as we're all basically in the dark about what the GPL means in this context.
Thanks,
Greg Wolfe, Wolfe Games
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